The Colas c27.18

c27.18

Land and houses provided the primary subjects of taxation. An accurate survey of land leading to a careful recording of land rights in government books appears to have been undertaken sometime about the middle of Rājarāja I's reign, and from that time, the references to land surveys and measurements as recorded in them become more noticeable.³³ An inscription dated 1184 from Tirumangalam,³⁴ Tanjore district, is of peculiar interest. It records that discrepancies had arisen in course of time between the record of land rights in the village and their actual distribution. The reasons were: first, the natural tendency to be remiss in maintaining the records fully up to date; second, the encroachments on pathways, canal bunds and so on by greedy ryots who had surreptitiously extended their holdings; lastly, the Vikrama-Cōḻappērāṟu had altered its course causing damage to some fields, and the taxes were still being assessed at the old rates without any allowance being made for this damage. A new survey was undertaken and the results recorded in detail in the inscription under reference. The records include the names and boundaries of all the shrines in the villages together with the lands they held. Among the entries made in the register, the following are noteworthy: land set apart for the sacrifice of goats (*kiḍā*) to the *piḍāri*; *kāṇis* for houses for *ambaṭṭar* and *nāvidar*;³⁵ the potter, carpenter, black-smith, goldsmith, washerman, and *paḷḷis* come in for free shares. The site whence earth was dug out for the river bank, and the burning ground are declared *nīṅgal* (excepted). But for the numerous gaps in this long inscription, it would be a most satisfactory and complete account of the distribution of land in the village at the time of the record.